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Public-sector union proxy shakes its fists

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An election worker empties a ballot drop box at Multnomah County election headquarters during the January 2010 special election held for Measures 66 and 67. The collection of initiative proposals filed by Our Oregon indicate that the organization and its backers are prepared to go after businesses and upper-income Oregonians once again.
(AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Our Oregon, which acts as a political and propaganda machine for the state's public sector unions, shook its fist at the world this week by filing four proposed initiatives, two of which would raise taxes substantially on upper-income Oregonians. The group also filed several proposed corporate-tax hikes in April, only days after the state House of Representatives nixed $275 million worth of tax increases while trimming public sector retirement benefits. Subtle, no?

Our Oregon's fusillade is, of course, a threat leveled at businesses, well-off individuals, advocates of government thrift, and so on. Keep messing with us, the threat goes, and we'll give you a second helping of Measures 66 and 67, the divisive 2010 referrals that raised taxes for businesses and upper-income Oregonians.

Things aren't all bad these days for public-sector unions. State spending will be much higher in 2013-2015 than in the previous biennium, and it appears that contracts for the state's largest two unions will reflect the good fortune. Still, public pension benefits have been trimmed and could be trimmed further. And then there's the "right to work" proposal that could end up on the November 2014 ballot.

The proposed measure, which is awaiting the resolution of a ballot title challenge, would apply only to public employees, who now must pay "fair share" fees if they work in union-represented positions but choose not to join a union. The initiative would allow them to say "no" not only to union membership, but also to mandatory payments. Denied automatic access to public employees' wallets, unions would have to convince them that their services are worth the cost, which isn't an unreasonable task. Public employees should be free to decide how to spend their own money, and those who object to unions' political activities shouldn't have to contribute involuntarily to the organizations themselves.

The ballot-box bullying in which Our Oregon engages so prolifically may give pause to some potential supporters of the proposed right-to-work initiative. Businesses and well-off people run some risk in backing the measure knowing that unions, in response, may pour money into an effort targeting their income. The best way to handle bullies, however, is to confront them, and Our Oregon's fist-shaking happens to make a good case for right-to-work legislation.

The most straightforward -- and, to us, the best -- reason to support the proposal is choice. Because union representation does provide value to members of bargaining units, it shouldn't be particularly hard to convince many employees in covered positions to support the cause. However, employees who still want no part of organized labor should be able to vote with their dollars. They -- not labor unions -- should decide what's in their interests.

Because right-to-work laws allow people to withhold "fair share" payments, they inevitably take some toll on unions' cash and clout. That may be a good thing or a bad thing depending upon your point of view, and, of course, how unions use the clout they have. Those in Oregon contributed millions to the campaigns supporting Measures 66 and 67. The threat implicit in Our Oregon's recent activity, meanwhile, is serious only if you assume that the organization's tax initiatives would sail onto the ballot, and perhaps into the law books, on a sea of labor cash. That's why many people in Oregon want to limit the power of Oregon's public sector unions -- and why they might have a point.

The potentially momentous November 2014 ballot on which this battle would culminate may feature measures eliminating the state's liquor monopoly and legalizing same-sex marriage and marijuana sales. Our Oregon and its supporters seem prepared to gamble on the belief that next year's election will deliver another walloping for corporations and the well-off. Then again, more than four years will have elapsed since the January 2010 special election that gave us Measures 66 and 67, and turnout this time around surely will exceed 62.7 percent by a large margin. As for the prospects of a right-to-work initiative, there's a lot to be said for appearing on a ballot dedicated so thoroughly to expanding personal freedom and changing longstanding institutions.